Exclusive! A Sneak Peek At 'Ironclad'!

Were you intrigued at all by James Purefoy and his giant Ironclad sword? How would you like to see him swing it to the tune of some spraying blood and hoarse whispers? Well, today is your lucky day because I have a very early and very raw trailer from Ironclad.

This footage is from the first two weeks of filming, so it's pretty rough, the soundtrack is temporary, and it was filmed prior to pre-Paul Giamatti being cast as King John. But there's still an impressive level of carnage on display, and everything remotely sharp or heavy is being wielded in defense of Rochester Castle. There's no slick choreography, it's just white-knuckle, balls-to-the wall medieval warfare. They still found room for a few explosions, though. Remember, King John used pig fat to melt the walls, so there was definitely a lot of falling stone during this siege.

Girls who dig the Middle Ages will be delighted to see Kate Mara swinging swords with the boys. This isn't as big of an anachronism as you'd think. There's a few instances of noble ladies defending their castles in desperate moments. It's rare, but it did happen. Everyone wants to go down fighting, regardless of gender, so that's a nice little nod to history's battlemaidens.

You'll find the clip embedded after the jump. While Ironclad is supposed to come out this year, IMDB doesn't list an American distributor. Can't we clamor for one?